The Fifth Fantastic
by ImagineShine
Summary: "Don't bother thanking me. I'm not doing this for you..." 19 year old Trisha Carter was on the spaceship with the others when the cloud hit. She joins the team as the Fifth Fantastic.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! I hope you enjoy this.**

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"You don't have a choice, Trisha." The 19 year old's head snapped up. "You flaunt an invention that isn't even yours. Why do you need me? Oh right. You can't even work it." Victor van Doom didn't even flinch at the hatred in her voice. "They're going up with or without you. If you don't they could get hurt." Victor grinned as he watched her bite her lip; and knew he had her. "Fine." She snapped turning her back on him and stalking towards the door. "Th-" Her head snapped around, "Don't bother thanking me. I'm not doing this for you." she turned and walked out of the room. Victor chuckled as the door slammed. "Yes, you are. You just don't know it."

****Page Break****

"Commander on Deck!" Ben Grimm snapped to attention out of habit. "Camera: $254, Memory stick: $59. the look on your former CO's face when he finds out he your junior officer: Priceless" Johnny Storm sat down, fully aware of the death glare he was getting from Ben. "What is this? I don't know if I'm supposed to be flying or dancing Swan Lake in this thing. Who came up with this?"Ben asked, holding up a skintight suit. "Victor did. It acts like a second skin, adapting to your body's unique needs." Susan Storm entered the room in her own blue jumpsuit. Reed Richards came over and took his suit from Susan. "Wow."

Their conversation was interrupted by an auburn haired girl in one of the space suits who came in and grabbed a bag. Without a word she slung the bag over her shoulder and left the room. "Is she going too? A little young, isn't she?" Reed asked the room at large but it was Susan who answered. "Her name's Trisha Carter. She's 19. I wasn't told why she's coming,only that Victor invited her." "Press?" Johnny suggested but Ben shook his head. "Too young. And I looked in that bag; it's the kind of stuff Reed's got all over his apartment." "Science equipment?" Reed asked and Ben nodded.

****Page Break****

Up on the space station, Johnny went into a engineer room and saw Trisha bent over a control panel. "What ya doing?" Her head came up. "If you aren't going to help, get out." "Don't you want to be here?" he asked, a little confused at her attitude. "I'm here because I need to be. End of Story." He put his hands up in surrender. "Alright, alright. No need to be so crabby." She didn't respond so he left the room and headed to help Ben and Reed.

Trisha was still working in the shield room when an alarm started going off. She stood and ran to the bridge where Victor was standing. "What's happening?" "Trisha. Close the shields. Now." She looked around. "Where're the others?" "They are outside the shields. CLOSE THEM!" Trisha looked towards the airlock. "Close them yourself." She whispered as she dashed towards the others. _If I can get there... _she thought desperately, scrabbling for the necklace she wore. _I wish I could walk through walls... _She had just gotten to the airlock when the cloud hit. After the cloud passed; Trisha was left gasping for breath. She looked at the others and saw Ben collapse. Acting automatically, she went over and closed the airlock to the outside and opened the other side. "Is everyone okay?" She asked turning around; unexpectedly, a wave of dizziness swept over her and her knees buckled. Johnny caught her as she fell.

****Page Break****

Trisha opened her eyes. She was lying in a comfortable bed in a white and cream room. "Where?" She sat up and noticed the medical equipment at the side of her bed. She had heard of Victor van Doom's personal hospital. A place where Victor and (sometimes) his employees were treated. A nurse entered the room. "Good to see you awake, Miss Carter." "How long?" She smiled, "A day. Give or take a few hours." Trisha threw the blankets off and stood up. She shrugged off the nurse and headed to the bathroom to change into some more comfortable clothes.

An hour later she and the other four were back on their feet. She had seen Johnny and a nurse head off somewhere; it looked like they were planning to go snowboarding. Everything seemed to be returning to normal, Trisha had just had lunch with Reed and Ben. They had joked about the adventure and that they were glad it was over, but Trisha's instincts told her their adventure had just started.

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**Author's Note: It has been brought to my attention in other stories that my chapters are rather short. For this I apologize. I end the chapter when it feels right and that seems to make my chapters short. **

**-ImagineShine**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey... I AM alive... I'm SOOOOO sorry for the long wait. I can't use school as an excuse as it started almost 3 months ago and I've found PLENTY of time to do other stuff. But I kinda hit a wall called writers block right before school started and never got back around to this story. Sorry again and enjoy chapter 2.**

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Trisha was in the garden, alone, around twilight; leaning up against a wall with her eyes closed. She had been feeling weird for a while now; she had so much energy she was exhausted and there was a pressure in her wrists that was just enough to be uncomfortable. As she tried to organize her thoughts, different images began playing in her head. Victor telling her to close the shields, Victor blackmailing her into joining the crew... her anger kept building and she was subconsciously aware of the energy in her body moving to her hands. She flung one hand away from her and opened her eyes at the sound of a statue crashing to the ground. Looking at her hands, a thought dawning on her, she flicked one of her wrists and watched as a small crater was blown into the walkway. Her mind running a gazillion miles an hour as she tried to work out what was happening, she flung an hand out and noticed the disturbance in the trees. "It's an shock wave..."

She looked over at the doorway at a light knock. Reed, Susan, and Johnny (holding a jacket around his waist for some reason she didn't even want to know) were gesturing to her. "What?" she asked softly as she joined them inside. "Do you know where Ben is?" "Ben? I thought he was in his room. Why?" Reed responded by stretching his arm and touching her shoulder from where he stood several feet away. "Sue turned invisible and Johnny said he burst into flames. We think it might have something to do with the cloud. Which means you may have been affected as well." Trisha led the way to Ben's room, where a crashing sound could be heard. Susan went to the door and tried to open it. "It's locked. And the keypad's not responding." Looking into the room, Trisha noticed the destruction and shrugged. The room was a mess as it was, what would a bit more do?

"Stand back. This might get messy." The other three backed away uncertainly as Trisha pulled her hands up to her chest, closing her eyes, and then shoving both hands towards the door. The door (and part of the wall) flew into the room with a crash. She turned to the others, taking in their shocked faces. "What? The room was a mess as it was. And Ben's not here." Everyone entered the room. "Where'd he go?" Susan asked and Reed picked up a picture. "He went home."

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They had found Ben... but now they were trying to keep the disaster scene on the bridge from escalating. Trisha was standing on the edge of the bridge, trying to get some civilians out of a car that was partially crushed under a flipped firetruck. Sighing, she checked that the truck was empty before blasting it off the bridge. She they used a smaller shockwave to move some of the debris away from the car as well as tearing the door off. As soon as everyone was clear she turned back to see what else she could do. Only to see another car flip over several others and come flying towards her. She briefly considered blasting it out of the way before realizing that would only cause more problems. She tried to duck as the truck got closer but knew it would still hit her. To her surprise the pain of impact didn't come. Looking up she saw the car several feet behind her; then she looked at herself. She looked like the cloud that had hit them in space, condensed into a humanoid form.

Everything was winding down and Trisha made her way over to the others. "Uh, Guys? We may have a problem." She whispered and Johnny started laughing. While she had been examining herself Trisha had realized she wasn't wearing anything and was grateful that everything was somewhat smudged in whatever form this was. When she changed back into herself, Reed gave her his coat to cover herself with. After being mobbed by the press for nearly an hour they finally got away; Reed taking them to his apartment ("more like a science penthouse" Trisha thought).

As soon as they got to Reed's place Trisha disappeared into one of the rooms, a duffle-bag of clothes someone had picked up for her over her shoulder. She appeared a few minutes later wearing jeans and a red tank-top. Scowling as she tied her hair back into a ponytail. "Reed; do you honestly expect us to stay here long term? I need MY lab." Reed looked mildly interested at her comment about her lab but still nodded. "We need to find out the extent of our abilities, and a way to reverse whatever the cloud did to us." Johnny, unexpectedly, was the one who protested. "Why do we have to reverse it? Having these powers is pretty cool."

"I doubt Ben agrees..." Susan whispered softly; causing everyone to look over at where he was asleep on the collapsed sofa. Trisha sighed; "Fine, start with me."

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"You're pure energy, or at least that's what it seems like. Nothing can touch you." Reed said, reading from some readings while Trisha stood, in her alternate form, in a box created to safely test Johnny's fire abilities. "That's nice. Now; can you tell me how I WON'T loose my clothes when I change?" Susan came in with the solution. "The suits. They were exposed to the cloud just as we were. They should act as we do. I put mine on and it turned invisible with me." Trisha snorted as she put on the tank-top and shorts she had brought into the box with her. "Nice to know Johnny and I won't end up naked every time we use our powers."


End file.
